Turns out for the past six days Leo had lied in the Combat division’s infirmary and since his clothing was finally completely ruined, he got a new one with both symbol and the name of the division on it. Unfortunately this was the only gift he could receive under the current circumstances, thus he left the floating island with the Cleaver on his shoulder, iron crown in hand and a confused smile on his face, but in a rather fancy, black training outfit. Meanwhile Alice carefully carried the jade jar with the dark-crimson horned beetles and, in fact, that was all Leo possessed.
“Even if you managed to bring back a souvenir or two from the Golden city last time, you probably won’t be able to do so now.” Alice finished the explanation when they stepped off the platform in one of the teleportation stations in the city, “Besides goods, you also can’t acquire techniques, but that doesn't mean we can’t give you a pointer or two, right, brother?”
“Sight, right.” Claude said, shaking his head in disappointment.
If this was his sister’s plan, she was clearly loosing her knack. He, of course, was still going to support her, therefore he said, “Leo, is there anything in particular you are interested in? Even though the two of us are mostly practicing alchemy, according to the standards of mortal realms we are rather knowledgeable in other areas as well.”
Leo’s head slightly spun from the amount of information Alice poured out within a span of few breaths and now the buzz of the street made it even harder to concentrate. Obviously he didn’t recollect being unconscious for the most of his time in the Golden city – according to his memories he just arrived, went to the ‘King’s kitchen’ and then had a round with Harold.
The trio slowly walked for a couple of blocks while Leo gathered thoughts and the two siblings patiently waited.
As always the streets were busy with people and their ranked beasts. Most seemed to be rushing somewhere, while there were those who stopped at the frequent food stalls for a bite or a drink. The shops at the sides also were rather frequented – all in all the city led its usual life.
“How could I have forgotten this!” Leo suddenly stopped and slapped his forehead in annoyance, “I need to learn how to move through a wet or a snowy terrain. Carrying the Cleaver sometimes is a really a hustle ...”
“Mhm.” Claude nodded, “Kevin already guessed you might ask about this. It’s rather simple – practice any movement technique or preferably – several. The difficulty doesn’t matter – it’s all about the Qi control. You’ll learn. Anything else?”
“Ehmm …” Leo got perplexed again. The solution sounded easy, but clearly was anything but that. Then he glanced at the crown in hand and, trying to hide the embarrassment, said, “Uhm … there is this thing I wanted to ask … how to use a spatial treasure?”
The two siblings looked back at him in confusion for a moment and then began to laugh at the same time. This was the Golden city and such knowledge was the first thing anyone learned the moment they could manipulate Qi at least a little.
“Sorry, my bad!” Claude realized they were being rude, “It’s easy – you just …”
“I’ll teach him afterwards!” Alice interrupted and pointed at the nearby building, “We’re here!”
And then proceeded through the door that had large sign ‘Antiques’ written on it.
“Welcome back, miss!” The fat shop keeper widely smiled at her, ignoring the two coming in from behind, “Did you make up your mind?”
“In fact, I did!” Alice said and smiled back as sweetly, “But first I’d like you to take a look at this piece of heritage.”
Then she grabbed the iron crown from Leo’s hand and passed it to the shop keeper. The latter took it, trying to hide the disgust, quickly infused Qi in it checking the contents and shook his head with a sigh of regret.
But before he could comment anything, Alice said, “Remember, yesterday I checked that ugly amulet of yours? My friend here want’s to exchange his crown for it – one ugly item for another. They even can hold somewhat similar volume, right?”
“This …” The fatty on the other side of the counter had hard time expressing how worthless in his eyes the iron crown actually was, but Alice didn’t intend to give in – after all she had a plan.
“In addition, you’ll need to provide my friend with the form number three hundred ninety five.” She said, “Meanwhile I’ll take another look at the sword I chose for myself. You said it was fifteen high rank immortal soul stones?”
“Sis, it was five.” Claude tried to remind her, but she immediately disagreed.
“No, I’m pretty sure it was fifteen. We can’t have this kind gentlemen to bear losses just because a girl wants to buy something, am I right?”
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Leo watched the proceedings slightly confused, but most of what Alice said made sense. Apparently she wanted to exchange his crown for another spacial item of similar value and buy a sword for herself. The price of fifteen immortal soul stones also didn’t seem to be to steep since he used twelve himself for a one way teleportation – for someone form the Golden city it was probably nothing, especially if they came from the Hubert family, like the two siblings.
In addition, everyone around here seemingly threw away spirit stones left and right, thus the amount of fifteen didn’t sound much. What Leo didn’t realize was that a high rank spirit stone was worth thousand mid rank ones and those, in turn, were worth a thousand low rank stones each. What he used to teleport out from Dreadlands were low rank immortal spirit stones, but the price Alice just offered was enough to buy a nice house in the Golden city’s suburbs.
Contrary to the boy from the mortal realm, the shop keeper knew the value of high rank immortal stones. It took only a moment for him to recognize the Alice’s simple scheme, but when he did, the wide smile returned to his face, except this time it almost stretched from ear to ear.
“I understand!” He said and went over to shelves in the back, “In that case, miss, you are definitely interested in a scabbard for your new sword. I’d like to suggest this one. It’s only five spirit stones.”
He returned with a nice, but plain looking sword in one hand and a fitting scabbard covered in shiny gemstones in the other. Leo found it hard to believe the beautiful work of art could be that cheap, but Alice, of course, thought differently.
“Do you think a girl from the Hubert family was born yesterday? Put away that ugly thing – no one will ever buy it!” She almost barked at the man. The next moment she regretted putting out her family name, but what was done, was done, so she asked, “So – deal or no deal?”
“Miss, you realize I’m taking a loss here …” The shop keeper tried to haggle, but seeing Alice’s expression darken, immediately dropped the act, “Alright, alright! Deal!”
When a while later the trio walked out the shop, Alice was widely smiling again, around his neck Leo had a strange, half-palm sized, dark and round amulet with some kind of a bird engraved on it, but Claude kept sighing and shaking his head.
“Don’t worry, brother. It’s gonna be fine!” Alice understood his concern.
She just spent a small fortune on a useless old sword so that Leo could exchange his crappy crown for an actual quality spacial item. She spent a couple of days running around the city, looking for shops who didn’t belong to any of the aristocratic families where one could exchange for a similar piece. Of course, Alice knew their scheme was stupidly simple, but technically Leo didn’t break any law – according to the form in Leo’s pocket the shop keeper earlier filled and signed, the two antique items, the crown and amulet, were of similar value, thus he could take it back to the mortal realm.
In fact, all of this was Claude’s fault, because he was the one who few days ago mentioned that the crown, no matter how ugly or inconvenient it was, most likely will be taken away and land in the sect master’s possession – the thing was just too eye catching. Hearing of this injustice, his sister tried to pester her father and convince him they should ‘keep’ the boy from the mortal realm, but when the old man threatened to put her behind the closed door for an intense two-year cultivation session, Alice thought of another way to help out their new friend.
Of course, it was not like the Hubert siblings had to pay the steep price by themselves. Behind her brother’s back, Alice secretly met with the rest of the group and they agreed to pitch in as well. Thus in the end the expenses were not that big, although still astronomical for someone from a mortal realm. Unfortunately Leo was never going to find out what lengths these youths went for his sake and currently cluelessly stared at the round amulet, not knowing what to make of it.
‘Why the hell anyone had to draw a chicken on it?!’ He was slightly upset, ‘Anyone knows that cats are much cooler!’
Alice had no clue the boy not only didn’t appreciate her efforts and even dared to criticize, thus her mood was rather good.
“Alright, Leo. That thing you got is actually quite good.” She said, “Just like any other spacial item, you use it by infusing Qi in it – you’ll try out later – it’s easy. It is of vital importance to not ever mention or show it to anyone though – while here that thing is as useless as the crown you had, from what I understand in mortal realms people will kill for it without a second thought.”
‘Ye, useless …’ Claude thought and held back an urge to smack her. They just spent a fortune on something the guy might loose on the first day.
“The chain is also expertly made – a Core formation stage cultivator will have a hard time tearing it, so watch out, don’t hang yourself on accident.” Alice explained and giggled, “There are limitations to it though – you can’t put living things inside or something that you’re actually not able to lift.”
While listening to her, Leo continuously nodded, but hearing the last part he stopped in his tracks.
“But … but how was the empress capable of putting the turtle’s head inside the crown, or the huge snake-dragon?” He asked in shock, “And there is no Qi in Dreadlands … and I don’t think she was that strong …”
“These!” Alice pointed at the jade jar in her hand, “These beetles have rather unique quality – their lifespan is measured in centuries and throughout their lives they absorb Qi from the environment. In the end they turn themselves into something that in some ways is similar to Heaven rank Qi pill – after consumption the person will experience a large boost of strength. My guess is that your empress wasted this rare alchemy ingredient in order to store things in the crown.”
“Wasted?” Leo asked in confusion.
“What Alice is trying to say – it’s much easier and cheaper to get a short boost of Qi or strength, depends how you call it, by other means, but the dark-crimson horned beetles should be used to save lives.” Claude explained, “They can heal by removing impurities, festering and rare conditions like corrosion. Even though four is not much, you better ask for a generous reward when you get back.”
“Sigh, I doubt it’ll work. Our sect master … most likely she’ll hoodwink me again.” Leo said, regretfully shaking his head.
“Then why don’t you stay?” Alice suggested the thing that was on her mind for the past days, “All you need is to find an employer and a stable job. No one will try to exile you in that case.”
“Ye, George Cilin mentioned such option the last time.” Leo smiled back at her and suddenly his mood improved, “But I’m just a random nobody here … well … I’m a random nobody back at home as well, but I’ll train hard and if I manage to form a golden core, I’ll come back. I promised it to master Shaw after all.”